RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2021/07/15/the-capitol-cover-up/

Judge G. Michael Harvey sounded floored.

During a detention hearing this week for Robert Morss, arrested last month for his involvement in the Capitol protest, a federal prosecutor told Harvey she needed permission from the government before she could turn over to him a slice of video related to Morss’ case. Joe Biden’s Justice Department continues to seek pre-trial detention for people who protested Biden’s election on January 6; prosecutors want to keep Morss, an Army ranger and high school history teacher with no criminal record, behind bars until his trial can begin next year.

But assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Jackson hesitated when Judge Harvey asked to see the footage captured by the U.S. Capitol Police surveillance system cited as evidence in government charging documents.

“Why haven’t I seen the video?” Harvey asked Jackson on Wednesday afternoon. She told the judge he could have access to the body-worn camera recordings and public source videos but that the USCP footage is under a protective order, which is common in most January 6 cases.

After Morss’ defense attorney said the photographs in the charging documents did not accurately reflect the video evidence the government gave to her under discovery requirements, Harvey demanded to see it for himself. “And anything you show to me . . . I’ll issue a minute order to release it to the public as well.”

Jackson informed the court she would submit the missing video evidence on Friday.

The hearing is the latest example of how hard the USCP and Justice Department are fighting to keep more than 14,000 hours of surveillance video under wraps. Lawyers for the USCP insist the recordings can’t be released for fear doing so will give wannabe insurrectionists too much information about the inside of the complex; the Justice Department claims the footage is “highly sensitive” government material.

Defense lawyers and media companies are fighting for fuller access to videos used as evidence by the Justice Department. Cherry-picked clips produced by the government are released to the media to support the narrative that January 6 was an armed, violent insurrection perpetrated by domestic terrorists who supported Donald Trump. The Biden Justice Department, in other words, has full control over a massive trove of recordings that shows exactly what happened on January 6.

https://www.city-journal.org/delta-variant-doesnt-justify-new-covid-restrictions?wallit_nosession=1

One cannot open a newspaper, turn on a TV, or scroll through an online news feed without hearing about Covid-19’s new Delta variant. While the variant is cause for concern among unvaccinated Americans and in many foreign countries, it shouldn’t make us reconsider our approach to the virus at this stage in the reopening process.

Delta is a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. It was first identified in India more than six months ago and has spread to 100 plus countries, having become the dominant variant in many, including the United States. It is 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha, or U.K., variant, which previously predominated in the U.S. and was itself 50 percent more transmissible than the original viral strain from China. This has led to increased infections both here and worldwide.

But the bump in infections is nearly entirely among the unvaccinated. The authorized Covid-19 vaccines appear to be effective against Delta. And Delta is not clearly more dangerous than earlier variants: the average Covid-19 case with Delta is no more likely to lead to severe disease, hospitalization, or death than cases with other variants. Despite rising numbers of U.S. Delta cases, hospitalizations in July have risen only minimally, while Covid-19 deaths have remained flat.

The accumulating evidence shows that the authorized vaccines are highly effective at lessening transmission for all variants—including Delta. In the rare cases where vaccinated people become infected, their disease is mild and they pose a lower risk of transmitting the virus to others than do unvaccinated people.

Thankfully, 59 percent of American adults are fully vaccinated. Sixty-eight percent have received at least one dose, which provides them some protection, though not as much as the complete regimen. The news is even better for the most vulnerable population: those 65 and older. Nearly 80 percent have been fully vaccinated and nearly 90 percent received at least one dose.

While younger people remain unvaccinated—authorization was only recently approved for those age 12 and up—Covid-19 is rarely a severe disease for people under 18. Deaths in those 18 and younger account for only one-tenth of 1 percent of Covid-19 deaths. Deaths below age 12 are practically unheard of. In fact, severe disease in people under 50 is rare unless they have comorbidities.

Despite this good news, pockets of concern do exist. Nine southern states, along with Wyoming and Idaho, significantly lag the nation in vaccination rates. Moreover, even well-vaccinated states have localized communities with large numbers of unvaccinated people.

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

Sixty years ago, the threat of population growth outstripping the ability of the Earth to feed, clothe and house people was real. That is no longer the case. We now face the opposite challenge. The West, including the U.S. and the rest of the developed world, are no longer having enough children to replace themselves. Simultaneously, in the U.S. there has been a sharp rise in out-of-wedlock births and father-less children. In a world consumed with identity politics, legalizing marijuana and climate change the problem of one-parent families has been ignored. 

Aging and (ultimately for Europe and the U.S.) declining populations face us. Japan’s population declined by about 400,000 over the past twenty years. Europe’s population increased by sixteen million (727 million to 743 million) between 2000 and 2020, but only because of an estimated 40 million immigrants. The United States population grew by 50 million during the past twenty years, with about half the growth coming from immigrants.

Demographers use TFR (Total Fertility Rate) to determine whether a nation’s native population is increasing or shrinking. It is a measure of the fertility of an imaginary woman through her reproductive life. Replacement is 2.1. In 2019, the TFR for Japan was 1.37, for Europe 1.52 and for the U.S. 1.71. The last time a TFR of 2.1 was reached in the U.S. was in 2007. In contrast, in 1960 the TFR was 3.65. Economic growth, over time, relies on population expansion. If it doesn’t come through births, it must come by way of immigration. As the United States grew rapidly in the post-World War II period, TFRs averaged over 3.0. Where population growth exceeds replacement are in undeveloped countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, and in India and Indonesia. Even in those regions, TFRs are declining.

Problems associated from aging and shrinking populations, i.e., a smaller workforce supporting a larger retired population and greater use of healthcare, have been exacerbated by changing cultural mores and an abandonment of traditional Judeo-Christian values, particularly in the U.S.  Out-of-wedlock births have increased, while births to married women have declined. And, it has been clearly demonstrated that out-of-wedlock births (70% of all births in a city like Baltimore) lead to drug and alcohol abuse, with criminality, poverty and illiteracy as their progeny. Not assuming responsibility for one’s actions leads to increased dependency on the state, and increased dependency leads to a loss of the dignity associated with work.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percent of children living in two-parent households declined from 88% in 1960 to 69% in 2016, while the percent of children living with a single mother rose from 8% in 1960 to 23% in 2016. A survey by the Pew Research Center reports that the U.S. “has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households.”

https://weingarten.substack.com/p/biden-voting-rights-demagoguery-made?token=

President Joe Biden’s recent remarks on “protecting the sacred, constitutional right to vote” advocated for nothing of the sort. Biden, at his demagogic worst, in fact maligned those who would ensure the sanctity of the vote by passing laws undoing the election security-threatening, confidence-sapping, legitimacy-imperiling practices enacted during the COVID-stricken 2020 election season.

Biden’s disturbing rhetoric might be chalked up to politics, but when considered in the broader context of the Biden administration’s unprecedented and recently revealed “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” document, which links questions about election integrity to terrorism, it takes on an even more sinister edge.

Biden describes the election reforms now being considered in some Republican-controlled state legislatures, most of which aim to restore some semblance of normalcy with respect to absentee and mail-in voting, as a “21st-century Jim Crow assault” and “the most dangerous threat to voting and integrity of free and fair elections in our history.”

“To me, this is simple,” says Biden, “This is election subversion…an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty.” The president goes still further: “We’re are [sic] facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole. Since the Civil War. The Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on January the 6th.”